Your email has been working just fine, when all of a sudden you notice that your Inbox has changed. It might appear that messages have disappeared, or that they're grouped differently. You may also feel like you can't find anything, or that it just looks wrong.

 

 

In my experience working with clients, most often they prefer to see their Inbox in order by date, with the newest messages first. If your Inbox has changed in a way that makes you disoriented, the simplest (and most likely) explanation is that its sort order has changed.

 

For example, instead of "By Date, newest first" the message sorting might have become:

There are many other possibilities, but any other sort order will be different from the one you're used to, which can make your Inbox become extremely confusing and upsetting.

 

Note that if you have a Gmail account and you access it using the www.gmail.com website via your web browser, since that interface always sorts your email "By Date, newest first" with no ability to change that sorting, this particular problem won't affect you. However, if you access your Gmail using a regular email program like Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc., all of which do permit you to change the sorting, then this problem might come up. Either way, you might also experience the issues listed below under "Other explanations," below.

 

 

Your emails are probably displayed in a list, where each row represents a message.

 

Some email programs display information about each message in columns, each with an element of that message, including the Sender, Subject, Date, etc. Others use a more compact display without columns.

 

If your email program has columns, one accidental click on a column's title (i.e., a click right on the word "From" or "Subject" at the top) will immediately change the sorting of your messages to that column, which will completely change the order of your messages. To put it back the way you prefer, assuming that you like "by Date, newest first," you would just click on the word "Date" at the top of that column, and then confirm that the dates are listed with the newest ones at the top.

 

Note also that every column can be sorted either in increasing (ascending) or decreasing (descending) order. If your messages are in date order but with the oldest at the top, just click once more on the "Date" title and the sorting should switch to "newest first."

 

Some email programs use the terms "Received" or "Sent" instead of "Date."

 

If you look closely, you can usually tell by which column your email is sorted. Look for the indicator (which is often a little "v") right after the column title, e.g.:

Unfortunately, since most email programs remember your settings, closing and reopening your email (or restarting your computer) probably won't change the sorting.

 

This problem is more likely to happen if you're using a Windows or Macintosh computer to access your email, whether you use webmail or a regular email program. It's less likely to happen with a mobile device like an iPhone, iPad, or Android, because a display with columns is unlikely to be used on a smaller screen.

 

Unfortunately, email programs don't typically confirm when you change the sorting, nor do they have a "lock the sorting" feature to prevent changes. The assumption is that if you clicked on a column title, you must have wanted to change the way your messages are sorted.

 

 

Although less likely, here are some other reasons your Inbox may not look right, any of which could also have happened by accident:

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